THE RIGHT WAY TO GET THROUGH CORNERS

Every corner should be ridden through with a minimum loss of speed while staying as safe as possible. This applies even more in the mountains, where the hills are steep and the descents fast. There are a couple of things we should be aware of.

FORMULA ONE STYLE

Open corners, where we can safely see what is ahead of us, can be ridden through using the Formula One style. We enter the corner on the outside line, hit the apex and exit on the outside again.

Our speed should be reduced before we enter the corner. As we ride through the corner it is better and safer to accelerate than to brake. Underestimating the sharpness of a corner often leads to a rapid loss of speed or even a crash.

INCLINING AND PEDALLING

When riding through a corner, we can gain some advantage by inclining the bike towards the inside with our full bodyweight placed on the outer pedal. When we have a clear view in front of us we can pedal out of the corner and get up to speed for the next section.

When we ride through tight corners in the mountains we need to pay sufficient attention to the situation on the road ahead of us. The tight corners often mean we actually exit in the opposite direction, and there is the danger of colliding with a vehicle coming the opposite way.